Hand in the Dark Chapter 1
by tokidokismile
Summary: My first submission, please be kind ! A short work, where Jason Brody learns about the pasts of some Rook Islands key characters, from someone caught in the middle of the turmoil (OC). What does it take for a man to become a monster? Can this cycle be broken? And for those souls is redemption possible? If I continue this story it will get more intense in several aspects.
1. Chapter 1

_The girl stopped looking up from her book, her hand keeping her place. She was sitting at the base of a tall, slanted palm tree on the hill behind the tiny shack below. The rumbling of the old diesel bus echoed loudly, as it struggled to make its way up the steep hill to the village accompanied by the smell of the exhaust in the air. _

_A smile spread across her face as she closed her book, and dashed down to the shack. Her sandals slapping loudly as she slid down the grassy hill. She shrugged her shoulder trying to adjust the lose string of her dingy faded blue tank top. She squeaked as she tripped and stumbled catching herself as just short of hitting the building._

_"He's back, he's back!" The girl cried poking at the window, the older girl inside smiled._

_"Don't climb through the window!" She scolded. The girl made a face, as she ran around to the open door. Down the hill near the general store she could see the other men from the village unloading from the bus._

_She ran inside and took a seat the table. It was warm inside the small shack, but it smelled of food from the stew cooking on the fire pit outside. She looked back at the girl as she set her book down on the table._

_"Citra, how's the old man?" The girl asked twisting in her chair._

_"The old man?" She asked shaking her head. "Malak is good. I'm learning a lot about the tatau of our people. Do you want to learn?"_

_ "Can I?" She asked. The girl smiled at her._

_ "Mari, what I learn. I teach you." She replied._

_"I'm home!" A male voice called as the familiar figure appeared at the door, the girl whipped her head around to the see his smiling face as he slung his bag off his shoulder ruffling his shaggy black hair._

_"How was the job?" The girl asked turning to look at her brother, as she joined the younger girl at the table._

_He clicked his tongue, as he pulled of his sweat-stained white tank top. He stepped into the other room grabbing another shirt from the stack of boxes near the bed._

_Her brow furrowed, put off by both his response and slinging the dirty shirt into the bedroom so nonchalantly. _

_"Hey, how is my little sister?" He smiled, as he rolled up the sleeves of his discolored plaid shirt as he took a seat at the table. Grabbing a handful of nuts from the bowl on the table with one hand as he ruffled the girl's hair with the other._

_She pouted looking at him with narrow eyes as she fixed her shoulder length black hair._

_"Not your sister." She grumbled, he smiled turning and cocking his head to look her in the eyes, his arm slipped around her shoulder. The reassuring smile that made everything seem alright, made her heart flutter._

_"Ey Nena, we are all brothers and sisters. This is our home. "_

The door closed near silently, but in the darkness the sound of desperate breaths broke her out of her memories. She opened her eyes, as she peered through the darkness. The moon hung low in the western sky casting its light through the open window.

There was an extra shadow in the dark near the door. Slowly she reached under the frame of her cot pulling the long thin knife out, slowly she slipped out of bed and without a making a single sound approached the intruding shadow.

"Make no noise." She hissed, as her blade found the shadows neck and pushed, the shadow eased back tapping against the wall, pinned. Between the wall and the point of the blade pushing into the sensitive line of its neck. The heartbeat seemed to reverberate through the blade, strong and steady as its breathing steadied.

Suddenly there was a loud knock on the door. The two froze.

"Move, and the blade goes in." She whispered. As she paused their eyes locked through the darkness.

She switched the blade from her left hand to her right hand as she opened the door.

A bright light broke the darkness and she squinted, the man lowered the flashlight. His face was obscured by a red bandana.

"Why are you at my door?" She asked in a groggy voice, glaring up at him as she scratched her head, leaning against the door. Behind him a jeep roared down the bumpy road, the headlights blasting the scene as it came to a stop by the main road. She looked past him, to the men gathered at jeep watching.

"Uh, apologies. We are looking for a man." He stammered, adjusting the AK on his left shoulder.

"On this island?" She asked skeptically. He nodded. She looked at the man and the others at the road. "There is no man here."

He looked at her, as if unsure. Catching her eyes he paused. Sharp like knives her brown eyes pierced through him unyielding.

"I see." He nodded finally, hesitant. He seemed to want to ask more questions, but his eyes drifted to the piece of metal nailed to the part of the door. He looked back to the men at the jeep and yelled, the men responded laughing, and waved him back. He nodded again and excused himself and ran back to the jeep.

She watched him as the other men laughed at him, as they loaded onto the jeep, the lights blasted again as the patrol went on down the dirt road.

She closed the door and glanced over, her knife still resting pressed against the man's neck.

She lowly drew her knife back as she walked over to the table, picking up the matches from the table and lighting the stubby candle at the center.

She walked around the circle of light, her eyes locked with the stranger. He was tall, his brown hair shaggy and dirty, his face obscured by a dark gruff beard. A bow slung across his chest and a short sword on his belt. On his left arm she could see the familiar tribal tattoos. Taking a seat at the opposite chair. She motioned for him to take the other chair.

He looked at her, his eyes still locked with hers through the dimness of the shack. His hand reached up to rub his neck. The blade removed, the tiny indent from where it had been pressed ached. He took a seat across from her. He swallowed nervously, as his hands rested on the rough table top.

"Thank you." He replied finally, breaking the silence finally.

She nodded casually as she stood the knife on the table by the tip. The clean blade reflecting the light from the candle. Her eyes dropped down to the blade, as she watched the tip burrow in the rough wood of the table.

"A _Free_ man on _this_ island." She murmured. "No free men come here. What did you do?"

"Escaped a psychotic murder." He replied, a smile broke across her face as she raised her eyes.

"Montenegro?" She asked, he looked at her unsure. "Vaas?"

The man's faces quickly twisted from uncertainty, to surprise and finally anger. His brow furrowed his hand clenched into a fist.

"I'm going to kill him." The man growled, his eyes down cast on the table. She watched as the muscles in his arm flexed, his fist clenching as though he were crushing the villains heart that instant.

A smile broke her face as she laughed rising to her feet the knife in her hand as she stabbed the knife into the coarse wood of the table.

"Will you?" She asked her face lit ominously by the candle light. "You'll kill all the monsters?"

She exhaled deeply, her hand delicately wrapping around the hilt of the knife as she yanked the knife free.

"You don't know anything about this hell." She murmured. "Just like the others..."

She leaned over the table and blew the candle out.

"You can sleep here, or run. This island is heavily patrolled by Vaas' men and right now they're all hunting for you. They won't come here again." She explained walking towards the door, in the dark. He watched as she walked towards the door, opening it quietly and slipping out.


	2. Chapter 2

She stopped the night breeze swept past like a warm whisper, there was no rest from the heat even in the dead of night. Down the road she could see the lights of the camp scanning the forest, and hear the voices of the armed men as they swept the jungle.

She glanced back at her door, she didn't want to be there. She didn't want to know. She looked at her knife and walked over leaving it on the wooden table the next to her front door. She grabbed the collar of her shirt as she pulled it up over her head and left it with the knife, she tugged on the strap of her black bra. As she started down the foot path towards the stream. She needed to cool off and think.

The dirt under her feet was soft and powdery, the tall grass lingered striking her legs gently as she passed with a quiet rustle as she made her way down the path.

She glanced up the sky was lit by bright stars, as the moon was barely visible beyond the hills and tall trees. It would be dawn soon. She stopped as she came to the delicate sound of rushing water, she ventured on traversing the smooth round stones as she made her way towards the water.

The water came from an underground stream from under the mountain, the water was always fresh and cool; having washed away the soil it was surrounded by smooth rocks large and small. She'd found it after she'd been brought to the island, and had worked around the rocks moving them and repositioning them to make it a pool deep enough to dunk her whole body. She stopped near the large flat rock, as she unzipped her jean shorts and lay them on the rock. She stepped towards the water, cool on her bare feet as she lowered herself into the water. She eased back resting against a rounded rock, she closed her eyes.

His orders meant that she was alone a majority of the time, but she preferred that than the company of his men. She was not a prisoner, but neither was she free. The things that bound her to the island were deeper and more difficult binds to break free from. These were not binds that one could break with clean hands, and a clear conscious.

_"Hey, Citra." He called stopping the older girl, Mari stopped looking back at them. "Not you, andale."_

_He motioned for her to go on ahead, the same kind smile on his face as always. She turned and headed on at a slowed pace, trying to catch the conversation._

_"Oye, the guys said about this man lookin' for guys." He began._

_His sister looked over at him, her eyebrow raised._

_"What's the work?"_

_He shrugged, catching a blade of the tall grass from the path, and plucking it. "Don't know. But the pay is crazy good!"  
Mari, glanced back Citra's brow was furrowed as she swatted the bugs from her face and crossed her arms._

_"Easy money makes dirty hands." Citra murmured shaking her head._

_Vaas looked at her as he ran his hand through his shaggy black hair and shook his head, Vass pursed his lips like he wanted to say something but stopped. He glanced over and caught Mari's eyes watching him._

_ "Ey Nina!" He yelled smiling at her as he dashed towards her. "You listening? That's rude! That's very rude!"_

_"No!" She cried as she started to run down the path, towards the beach, the warm sand pouring through her bare feet and sandals. Laughing, as his arms scooped her up. "I'm too old for that! Vaas I'm 12 already!"_

_She cried helplessly as he ran down the rest of the path, with her flailing feet flying behind him._

_Citra smiled following after him, she paused kneeling down to pick up Mari's sandal. The sole was nearly paper thin and the straps had been replaced by one of the men in the village. She looked back up the two were already nearing the water's edge._

She found in her loneliness that she always slipped back to those nearly forgettable ordinary days, before she really woke up to what the place she called home, the people she called family, and even she herself really were. Once awakened, there was no going back no matter how beautiful the islands around them were.

She rose slowly out of the water, as she wrung the water from her hair before she slipped her shorts back on and headed towards the shack. The dirt caking in a layer to the bottom of her feet as she trekked back up the foot path.

She ran her hand through her wet hair slicking it back as she bit at the skin around her thumb nail. She was a little nervous about the stranger she left in her home and about how things always seemed to get worse. She wondered, if the stranger got caught would he tell him about her? If he thought she was conspiring against him too would he become worse?

She stopped looking out the outside of her shack. It was still intact. She collected her shirt and her knife from the table and opened the door. She stopped suddenly, the stranger was standing inside holding a book. He looked at her as the door opened not startled in the slightest by her entrance.

She looked at him a little surprised, as she stepped in closing the door behind her.

She set the knife down on the table as she slipped her shirt over her head. "You're still here?"

"Yeah." He replied as she took a seat facing him, her head cocked to the side. She watched him as he slipped the book back in its place and took a seat opposite of her. Their positions reversed from their last encounter.

"You have a lot of books…" The stranger murmured trying to break the silence and the intensity of her dark eyes.

"You think I shouldn't be able to read?" She asked incredulously, his eyes burst in a panic as he began to try to explain himself. She laughed. "Small talk is not necessary. You stayed for a reason, what do you want?"

He looked at still unsure, her eyes every time he was caught in her cold dark eyes, he felt the temperature drop. There was no doubt, her eyes like arrows seemed to demand the point in everything.

"Answers." He replied, she gave a thoughtful nod.

"What's your name?" She asked as she rose to her feet walking over to a metal canister with a spigot at the bottom, she grabbed a cup and poured some water.

"Jason. Jason Brody." He replied as she turned around and placed the cup on the table in front of him. He looked at her, her tan skin glistening in sweat. Her wet black hair, hung around her face in wild curls that rested on her collar. The collar of her white shirt was translucent, her black bra clearly visible through her shirt. Jason caught himself looking and glanced back down, thanking her for the water and taking a drink.

"Jason Brody." She repeated as she took a drink.

"What's your name?" He asked looking at her from across the table.

"Mari." She replied. "How did you end up here?"

"I was with my friends when we were captured by that lunatic." Jason explained. "Some people from the village have helped me."

She nodded. "What brought you to _this_ island?"

"I was looking for Vaas." He replied, his face stern.

"This is where you would find him. This is his compound." She explained lifting her eyes to meet his. "But he's not here now."

Jason looked at her steadfastly, trying to make sense of her response.

"If this place is his compound, isn't it dangerous? What are you doing here?" Jason asked.

"It's not dangerous to me." She replied.

"Are you a prisoner?"

"No." She replied.

"You helped me, why?" Jason asked leaning across the table trying to get a read from her, but getting nothing.

"I don't know why I helped you." She replied as though she really hadn't given any thought to having kept his presence from Vaas' men. "He took you, is that why you want to kill Vaas?"

Jason paused, Mari watched him intently.

"He killed my brothers." Jason replied coldly, she met his blue eyes. A storm brewed within, fear, pain and hate. So familiar. "You said I didn't know anything about this place, and mentioned others..."

A smile cracked her face.

"Yeah, it's a long story…" She murmured smiling ruefully. "And yes, many Rakyat have tried to go up against Vaas... And the Devil behind him. None have succeeded."

She sighed a deep breath as she rose to her feet. She leaned over the table, catching his eyes it felt like he couldn't move. Her eye contact felt like nails and his body pinned in place could only stare back. In that moment, it felt like she slipped past words, past physical presence and penetrated deep through his mind to his heart trying discern his true motives.

"Jason Brody," She began his eyes slipping down to her lips. "How much are you willing to lose to save your friends?"


	3. Chapter 3

_A/N: Alright, I don't know how many people are keeping up with this little story. But I should warn you, things get seriously messed up in this next chapter. There is a "flashback" part that contains serious violence and gore and some of it directed at a child. _

_From here on it's gonna be mature content ahead._

* * *

_"Jason Brody," She began his eyes slipping down to her lips. "How much are you willing to lose to save your friends?"_

Jason swallowed looking back to her piercing dark eyes. "Everything."

"Even yourself?" She asked, her face softening as though pained.

Jason stared at her, and nodded responding steadfastly. "Yes."

She closed her eyes contemplating his answer, as she rose back to her feet. Her eyes closed her face appeared disappointed as she slowly shook her head.

"Monsters are not born, Jason Brody. They're made. It is not without reason that people say the road to hell is paved with good intentions." She began looking down at him. "It's easy to see the monster he became, but he was once too a man. He became a monster to save us."

"I don't see that at all!" Jason snapped with disbelief his hand striking the table. She nodded.

"There's no way you could know; you would barely believe me." She murmured. "What is it you seek from Citra?"

He looked at her surprised, she motioned running her finger down her own slim left arm as his eyes fell on his own heavily tattooed left arm.

"The strong prey on the weak. It's the law of this island, the animals and the men all live by it. Power does not just come to one, it's taken. And then it takes you." She replied walking around the table to her book shelf and removing a large leather bound book. She opened it flipping through the pages, and then dropping the book in front of Jason.

"Men have always come here, looking to take by force." She explained showing Jason the book, it was a topographical map of the island with areas marked by X'. "And the people of this island have been victim to them just as much as each other."

She turned around and pulled up her nearly dry shirt, on her dark skin from right shoulder to left hip was a jagged line of scared flesh.

Jason looked at her wide eyed, as she lowered her shirt.

"When I was twelve years old, a man who had always had a difficult time with the people of our village decided he would make himself our leader." She began, Jason watched as she turned around and walked back taking a seat across from him. "I remember the night he came to our village, with armed men. The men were from our own village, men we knew all our lives now held guns to us. The man, he demanded that people paid him for his protection. Those who could not pay, would work for him."

She paused releasing a shuddering sigh as she looked at Jason.

"Did you ever stop to think, how one piece of technology could change so much?" She asked gesturing with her finger, smiling wryly. "None of the men in the village could act, fearing the guns, many paid those who couldn't were being shoved into trucks."

She ran her hands over her face, a smile on her face weakly hiding the tears that glossed over her dark eyes.

"When they came to our shack... We had no money. Vaas, Citra, and I. We were just orphans, we had only each other. That was when Vaas stood up. He tried to save us…" She murmured trailing off, her eyes focused on the burnt black wick of the candle.

* * *

_ "Let go!" Vaas yelled as the man in the black bandana shoved him out of the shack. The girls came after, followed by another man in a camo colored cap, his assault rifle cradled in his arms._

_Mari scanned across the normally peaceful valley it was lit up eerily by the vehicle headlights and torches. Everyone in the village was out of their homes, intermixed with them were armed men. The hot air felt tense with fear and uncertainty. _

_Her eyes glanced up to Vaas, his face was confused, but he looked angrier than upset._

_"What's the matter with you!?" Vaas yelled. "What are you doing!? These are your people man!"_

_He yelled shoving one of the armed men, he stumbled cursing and shoving Vaas back with his rifle. Vaas glared as he looked out at the people of the village._

_"Settle down boy, you gonna get hurt." The man in the military fatigues replied climbing down off of one of the nearby jeeps. Vaas turned glaring at him._

_"This is mine now." The man proclaimed motioning to the village with his arms spread wide, as he dropped the cigar from his lips and crushed it under his boot, he pointed to Vaas. "__**You**__ are mine now."_

_"No." Vaas growled, walking towards the man, suddenly the muzzle of the rifle jabbed him hard in the ribs, he doubled in half as he staggered. "No man is yours!"_

_He straightened out, as the man motioned for the armed thug to back off as Vaas closed the distance between them. Mari stared terrified, shielded by Citra's arms. _

_Vaas glanced at the people, too fearful to act, Vaas growled turning to the man._

_"You get out! Leave!" He yelled at the man. "No one needs anything from you! No one wants you here! LEAVE!"_

_The man smiled, as he rested his left hand on Vaas shoulder. Vaas glared at him._

_"You a hero boy?" The man asked with a venomous smile spreading across his face. Vaas looked at him warily, as the man suddenly struck him hard in the stomach, Vaas staggered back gasping for breath, as he fought to stay on his feet. _

_"Heroes, boy, do not exist." The man laughed smiling to the crowd. "Pick him up."_

_Two men moved towards him linking their arms with his, and pulling him up by the shoulders as they jerked him upright._

_"This is a lesson for the rest of you!" The man yelled, as he removed the knife from the sheath on his belt. He moved towards Vaas in his left hand he grabbed a handful of his black hair and pulled his head up. Vaas struggled but in his right hand the man raised the blade to his left eye and he froze, his eyes focused on the blade, centimeters from his eye._

_The man smiled, glancing at his captive audience. "Never resist."_

_With that the man pushed the blade into his eyebrow and dragged the knife over his scalp._

_Vaas grit his teeth and struggled against the pain, fighting to choke back the scream. The blood oozing down the left side of his face._

_The man smiled lowering the knife to his abdomen. "You will lose."_

_Driving the blade in, driving the point home. Vaas body went limp. The man drew the blade out slowly, sheathed in blood. As he turned to address the people, smiling. The men threw Vaas down on the ground, he was on his knees blood pouring from the wound on his head his arms wrapped around the wound in his abdomen. The crowd was dead silent._

_Without a sound Vaas tipped sideways, the blood spilling into the dusty ground. _

_Mari screamed, as she tried to pull out of Citra's arms wildly. The tears pouring from her eyes, her fingernails digging into the older girl's arms as she struggled to hold her back. _

_"Thank the man for your lesson." The man called to the crowd with a laugh, as he paused to wipe the blood off his blade on the shirt of a terrified villager. He stopped to look at the girls; Citra trying to comfort Mari, her face in Citra's long dark hair._

_"Get the women." The man ordered, as he headed back to his jeep. As the men descended on the grieving girls. "Bring them to me."_

* * *

"But this man, he killed him. Right there. I saw the blade sink into his flesh and it felt like it pierced through me." She murmured her eyes rising to meet Jason's pained expression, his hands clasped together under his chin as he listened. "I thought he was dead, and in a way. The man I knew did die there that night."

"The devil always comes when the chips are down, Jason Brody. You should know: when a man is cornered he's most willing to sell his soul." She began again. "In the hands of those men, what thoughts could a child have...? How could I know? The things that men could truly be…"

* * *

_ "No!" Citra screamed as Mari was ripped from her arms. The girl screamed, pulling from the soldier's grasp as he kicked Citra into the chain link dog kennel. Another soldier slammed the door and slipped the heavy chain between the links of the door and frame, securing the padlock. Citra screamed shaking the door violently._

_"Give me the girl!" She screamed. "Please!"_

_"The boss asked for this one." The soldier replied, Mari squirmed in his grasp. As Citra went dead silent. Her eyes darted to the girl and it was as if she had no words to speak. Just the grief on her face. They're eyes locked as the girl was dragged away by the armed men. With only the sound of the girls struggles in the darkened basement. As the door closed behind him, Citra's scream rang out with all her powerlessness rage._

_Mari whimpered as the man shoved her through the door, into the dimly lit room. The familiar man sat at a chair by the window as he casually glanced over at the girl. Her heart stopped, as she realized the man who'd killed Vaas stood before her._

_Her eyes scanned the room desperately as she searched for anything she could use as a weapon. She dashed plucking the pencil from the desk as she ran towards him._

_He laughed as he easily he caught her slim arm in his hand. He squeezed and twisted her arm and the pencil fell from her grasp as he stood up and tossed her aside. He laughed as he picked up the pencil and placed it back on the desk as he stepped towards her, his boot falling on her hand, pinning her to that spot._

_"Was the man in the village your father?" He asked curiously, a smile across his face. Her eyes glared up at him with all the hate she'd ever felt aimed at the man before her. "Or just the same misplaced spirit?"_

_Mari glared up at him, he smiled and shifted his weight putting more pressure on her hand._

_"I am not going to kill you. You, like that boy, will be a message." He began as he eased his foot up and knelt down before her. "You can accept my kindness, and be protected."_

_"Or deny it," With that he grabbed her shoulder and threw her face down on the ground, Mari squirmed but his left hand on the back of her neck held her in place. "And suffer for it."_

_She struggled to see over her shoulder, as she watched him draw his knife, like he had with Vaas. She struggled but it was fruitless as he pushed the tip into her right shoulder; she squirmed and struggled, screaming as he drew it across her back to her opposite hip._

_He released her. Hissing and crying in pain she writhed on her belly like a wounded snake, the man smiled. As he rose to his feet. Mari rolled on her side as the man kicked her over onto her back. She cringed._

_"We are not done." He began stepping towards her, his heavy boot falling on her abdomen, her eyes blurred by tears glared up at him. Her hands grabbed his boot trying to push it off her. The bloody knife in his hand. "We are not done at all."_

_Suddenly the door exploded open and scraps of wood went flying in every direction. Her mind spinning, as the ringing in her ears deafened her. In the far distance she could hear the muffled shriek of sirens, and the dampened sound of gunfire. She recoiled on the ground rolling into a little ball, the pain on her back piercing as she struggled to get on her feet. Her head swimming, rattled by the explosion. A figure rushed past her, striking the man in the fatigues, she struggled dazed to make sense of the scene._

_Somehow, the figure had ripped the knife out of the man's hand and tackled him to the ground. She could hear nothing but the piercing of the endless ringing in her ears. She struggled to focus her eyes, as suddenly something hot struck her. She ran her hand over her face, looking down the dark liquid glimmered in the gold tinted dimness, she looked up. Her sight finally stable._

_A dark figure, a demon, sat perched on the man, a knife moving like a blur up and down, over and over, again and again into the fleshy mess that had been the man. She stared wide-eyed. The black liquid, blood, pouring and pooling around and beneath the man's body, creeping towards her. She whimpered and pushed back away from the demon and his prey._

_Suddenly she noticed the demon's eyes upon her. She froze staring back at him. The demon pulled the knife forcefully from the man's corpse one final time. Turning fully to face the girl, she stared wide eyed as the shape crawled towards her._

_She couldn't move frozen by fear paralyzed by pain, she could only watch. The darkness that surrounded them was illuminated by sparse light, and the demon's glowing eyes. A bloodied hand reached out to her, she shut her eyes tightly._

_Waiting, unsure what to expect of the demon. She could hear the sound of a muffled voice as she slowly opened her eyes. Kneeling before her drenched in blood sat Vaas. His head shaved the wound on his head roughly bandaged, his left arm wrapped around his abdomen._

_She stared at the bloody specter, shaking as the tears flooded over her eyes, and she threw herself into his arms to validate it wasn't a vision, nor a ghost but the living man knelt before her._

_A shadow appeared at the door frame as the tears fell. Citra stood at the door clutching a knife, her face bruised. As she looked down at the two, Mari's heart clenched with fear. There was something in her sister's face she'd never before seen. Her sister's beautiful bruised face was glided with disgust in the dim golden light. _

* * *

The tears fell quietly from her face, as her story came to an end, Jason shifted in his seat exhaling a heavy sigh.

"I didn't understand it then. But Vaas had aligned himself with a foreigner named Hoyt, in order to arm the men of the village and mount an attack. Even though he'd been near fatally wounded, he led the men into the armed camp to save us." She explained. "Vaas had pushed himself beyond his limit."

She wiped the tears from her eyes, as she cast her eyes on Jason. "Jason, no man is more vulnerable than one that believes his cause is right and is willing to do even the unthinkable..."

"After we returned I realized the toll it had taken on all of him, his mind, his body, and his very soul." She murmured her words dripping with ire. "Hoyt, in his kindness had ruined him. Preying on the inadequacies in his heart. He fed is hunger for power with guns and men to command. Dulled his grief and pain with drugs."

She rose to her feet as she crossed her arms over her chest.

"Citra steeled herself to never be a victim of any man again. Her heart hardened and she became driven to make the Rakyat into the warriors described in the ruins." She paused looking at him her eyes scanning the tattoos that lined his arm. "Citra's obsession is as dangerous as Vaas'..."

Jason's eyes dropped down to the ink now imbedded into his arm.

"The path you're on could save you or damn you all." She began. "He is what he became thinking he was doing right. Now he has torn apart what he fought to protect-"

She stopped suddenly placing her finger over her lips, as she listened intently. The soft sound of chimes sounded outside, her eyes grew wide as she motioned for him to head to the bedroom, quietly Jason did as she gestured.

"_Stay there._" She mouthed, as she spun around and moved to the door when suddenly the door opened in front of her.

A man with a mohawk and a scar trailing from his left eyebrow over his skull stood in front of her looking at her with darkened eyes. He was dressed in dirty camo cargo pants and a tank top stained red. His right hand was covered in bloody bandages. As a smile broke across his face.

"I thought I heard you speaking..."


End file.
